Thousands of protesters gathered here to call for peace and to oppose a NATO summit scheduled for later this week in the Spanish capital.
Social, anti-military, and pacifist movements from around the world gathered here to show support for an anti-NATO congress and its latest declaration calling for peace.
According to Jose Luis Centella, president of the Communist Party of Spain, Xinhua news agency “many, thousands of people are demonstrating today in Madrid for peace, for a multilateral world so that Spain can live in harmony”.
While mentioning Spain’s dramatic increase in military spending, a protester called attention to “other problems such as the closure of emergency services, and outpatient clinics and hospitals which are more saturated every day, but there is no money for that.”
Demonstrators argued that increased defence spending in Europe, as advocated by the US-led military alliance, was a threat to peace, and that the money should instead go to schools and hospitals.
In response to the ongoing massive protest, the Spanish government has increased security in advance of the upcoming NATO Summit.
By Brendan Taylor